


Territorial

by Lord Nyoka (SilverofSouls)



Series: The Vampire and the Werewolf [1]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Werewolf Danny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-21
Updated: 2014-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-22 02:30:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2491145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverofSouls/pseuds/Lord%20Nyoka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny runs into Carmilla out in the woods one night and the two have a…nice little chat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Territorial

She was running.

Her breaths were rhythmic, like powerful waves against a battered shore. Soft grass whipped against chestnut fur. Her muscles were aflame, heat burning away all thoughts save those controlling the automatic movement of paws, drumbeats against the ground, sounding her war song. She threw her enormous weight into each galloping step, not even a bare attempt at subtlety. She wanted whoever was out there -  _what_ ever was out there - to know that Silas University was under the fierce protection of Danny Lawrence.

Silas nights always brought with them an extra layer of darkness, as if ink had been spilled across the sky. She remembered how frightened she had been as a freshman, unable to stray far from the sidewalk lights for the first several months, despite having eyes sharp enough to spot a mouse stirring in the leaves at a distance of one hundred yards. Now she was nearly at the old woods that signaled the campus boundary, moving through the heavy midnight air with all the confidence of a wolf who had claimed her territory.

The trees closed in around her, but she did not slow, her pounding beats morphing into harsh crunches as her heavy paws crushed the dead leaves littering the ground. The air was even thicker here, filling her nose with a battery of smells. The wooden decay of fallen vegetation mixed with the musk of rabbits that skittered away at the sound of her approach. In the background, a sharp sting held the whispered promise of winter. The shadows seemed to consolidate here, tendrils undulating in the wind that sent a low whistle through the leaves above. She could feel them wrap around her limbs as the night pulled her into its embrace, gentle touches of ice managing to break through the layer of thick fur, just enough to make individual hairs stand a little taller.

She slowed for nothing, not even when the tendrils felt like fingers brushing against her, not even when the first of the shades began to materialize, faceless figures following her every movement. Watchers, they were, taking only the briefest of pauses from their eternal reverie to note the rare passing of a beating heart. Danny had no fear for their hollow gazes. She had long since made peace with the many passive – if at times slightly unsettling – inhabitants of Silas. There was no time to be wasted on being afraid of what could barely touch her.

She moved deeper into the old wood, running along the boundary that was in no way marked, relying on the instinct that had guided her over the line countless times before. Her eyes scanned the gloom as she ran, nose in the air to catch anything out of the ordinary. There was an exceptional care in the attention she paid to her surroundings, as if the slightest change in the old woods would signal a coming apocalypse.

She thought of Laura with every glance, unable to keep the girl out of her thoughts for any significant amount of time. Though Danny had always taken her patrolling seriously, there was an urgency in her step that had been absent before the small girl had wiggled her way into her heart. In her mind, it was simple: there was no room for mistakes anymore. Not with danger following so closely behind the one that she would fight tooth and claw to protect.

She still wasn’t sure how it had happened. At first, Laura had been just another lit student. A very smart lit student, with a bubbling laugh and a smile that sent warm tingles all the way through her body every time she had the pleasure of seeing it light up a room.

And then the danger had come, strange and sinister, making its presence known by making the presence of several freshmen girls  _un_ known. The pattern wasn’t unusual, as she had later learned, but it still struck her deep in the pit of her stomach. Every missing girl was a personal failure, a painful rip at her pride, a reason to throw herself into her task as protector with renewed vigor. She summoned energy she didn’t have, unwilling to admit that the sleepless nights were beginning to take a toll on her. It was impossible to sleep when closed eyes never failed to bring horrible images of Laura being ripped from her arms by cold, dead hands as her screams echoed into the abyss.

Danny dug her claws into the earth, big paws dragging small piles of leaves with them as she lurched to a stop. She panted heavily to catch her breath, searching for the source of the sudden discomfort that was crashing over her in waves. Her ears swiveled atop her head, listening for sounds among the trees.

There was nothing but silence. Crushing, oppressive silence…unnatural, even for the old woods. That was when she realized what had made her stop. Not a single pair of glassy orbs stared at her from the darkness. The silent denizens that kept watch over the dying trees were certainly anything but welcoming, but their presence was a constant, and one that Danny had grown very accustomed to on her patrols. The shadows still swirled among the branches, but if the shades had fled, something must be wrong.

A deep sniff revealed the culprit, raising the hackles at her neck and curling her lips into a snarl. The air was slowly permeating with the familiar scent of perfume and blood, a combination that was thick with the promise of the last person on Earth she wanted to see.

From the shadows in front of her, a black plume of smoke rose. Her limbs buzzed with sudden adrenaline, ready to carry her far away from the unwelcome intrusion and into the night, but she wrestled with the instinct and forced herself to stand perfectly still. A slight breeze filled the clearing, scattering the thick smog to reveal Carmilla, pale face shining like the moon in the darkness, smirk clearly visible even among the shadows. Her eyes gleamed like two pinpricks of starlight, full of a life they had no right to display. She was dressed in black, of course, and the shadows seemed to cling to her as she materialized. She almost looked as though she was floating among them.

“Well now,” she began, voice low and softer than velvet, “I’m surprised to see you doing the ‘lone wolf’ thing. You strike me as a pup who isn’t too keen on leaving the safety of her pack.”

Danny gave a rumbling growl in response, earning a soft chuckle from Carmilla. The laugh sent a shudder through the chestnut wolf, and she stepped closer, ears lowering flat against her head.

The vampire clicked her tongue at the response. “Temper, temper. Are you always so quick to anger?”

Her tail lifted behind her, bristling in warning.

“I’m not afraid of you,” Carmilla asserted, stepping out from the shadows. They trailed behind her like a veil as she stood with her face a mere foot from Danny’s trembling jaws. She didn’t seem the least bit fazed by the wolf’s size, the fact that the narrowed eyes were on her level, boring into her with a heat that could melt lead. “How about you change so we can have real conversation, hmm? As fun as it is trying to decipher your grunts, I don’t feel particularly in the mood tonight.”

Instinct warned her to remain as she was, but pride told her that she could subdue the vampire in either form. She stood perfectly still for a moment as she debated to herself before the realization that the unsettling smell pouring off of Carmilla would be somewhat less noticeable in her human form.

She kept her eyes locked on the other girl as she let the change overtake her. Tingles spread through her body, numbing her limbs as her bones shifted beneath hard muscle. Her pelvis twisted, drawing her upright as her front legs bent at odd angles, fur receding beneath skin as her toes elongated and spread into fingers. She felt the weight of her tail disappear as her back paws stretched in front of her, allowing her to stand firmly on two feet. When the numbing sensation faded, she was standing at her full height, stark naked before the vampire, her elevated body heat and adrenaline keeping her warm against the autumn chill.

Carmilla observed the entire process with barely-concealed fascination. When it completed, she broke the stare long enough to rake her gaze unashamedly down Danny’s body, a soft hum of appreciation falling from her lips. The werewolf gave another growl, thick and hoarse against her human vocal chords, but the message was no less threatening.

“This doesn’t work if you continue to snarl at me like an animal,” the vampire pointed out, a hint of amusement coloring her tone.

“I don’t see this working at all, regardless of how I address you,” Danny fired back.

“Not at all?” Carmilla asked, tilting her head to the side in some mockery of offense. “And here I thought we were ready to paint each other’s nails and try on each other’s clothes…” here her eyes wandered again, “…though, really, you _certainly_ don’t need them.”

 A single shiver traveled the length of Danny’s spine. It wasn’t from the cold. “You wouldn’t be talking to me if you didn’t have something to say, so how about you make your goddamn point so I can get back to patrolling.”

Carmilla unleashed a wicked smile as she stepped forward, tilting her head up to whisper in the tall girl’s ear. “I know you dream about her. I know you hold her in your dreams and cry when she gets ripped away from your grasp like the weak little  _puppy_ that you are.”

Danny’s vision flooded with red. She surged forward with the force of a tsunami, grabbing the belligerent vampire by the throat in her fury, slamming her against a trunk with enough force to shake the entire tree, sending a flurry of dead leaves into the air around them. She held Carmilla off the ground, feet dangling below her so that they were at eye level. “Weak little puppy indeed,” she snarled through clenched teeth, nails digging into the cold flesh of her neck.

“Mmm,” Carmilla managed to speak despite the increased pressure on her throat, still forcing a smile despite the half-strangled tone of her voice. “You know what  _I_   dream about?”

“I don’t give a  _shit_ ,” Danny spat.

“The exact same thing.”

Of all the retorts she had been expecting, that had been the last on the list. Her grip didn’t slacken, but she faltered for a moment, speechless.

“I dream of mother taking her away,” Carmilla whispered, her eyes softening by a few minute degrees. “Of fighting the hands that grab at her with all I have…with everything that I am. And it’s not enough. No matter how many times I try, it isn’t enough.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Danny demanded.

The vampire’s eyes darkened, narrowing on her with a searching gaze that left her feeling suddenly vulnerable even as her grip held firm and iron. “Because,” she admitted after a moment, “we want the same thing. To protect her.”

The rage came thundering back at full force, driving Carmilla further into the rough bark at her back. “ _You_ don’t get to protect her,” she roared, her voice filling with authority, “ _you_ are the danger.  _You_ are the one who’s stolen girls out from under my nose.  _You_ are her greatest threat. And yet you  _still_  have the audacity to lie to me, even now…even when I hold your pathetic not-life in my hands.” She tightened her grip even further to make a point. The vampire twisted in discomfort, eyes flashing dangerously for a moment. She looked down at the ground and took in a labored breath, subduing whatever instinct it was that told her to attack.

When she fixed her gaze again on Danny, the look was almost palpable. “You won’t kill me,” she said, voice filled with all the assurance that she shouldn’t have…assurance that only fueled the fire that threatened to engulf the werewolf at any moment.

“And what makes you so sure?”

Carmilla didn’t answer. She only stared, dark eyes sharpening to points. Danny felt herself relax slightly under the weight of the look, fingers slackening just enough to freely allow air into the lungs of the girl in her chokehold. She found herself searching the pale face in front of her, taking in the sight of the midnight waves that reflected pale moonlight, the tantalizing arch of determined brows, the soft, scarlet lips that suddenly seemed so inviting…

“S-Stop,” Danny stammered, forcing her eyes shut with enormous difficulty, retracting her hand and taking a step away from the tree, letting the vampire fall onto her feet.

The laugh tickled at her ear again, filled with whispered promises she didn’t want to hear. “You know, the funny thing about my…‘seduction eyes,’ as you call them, is that they don’t work at all on the unwilling,” Danny heard the rustle of leaves as she took a step closer. “There needs to be attraction, and no small amount, either. Raw, unfettered lust…”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Danny growled, but she did not open her eyes.

“Do you know what werewolf blood tastes like to a vampire?” Carmilla continued as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “Thick and hearty…the richest, fullest meal you’ve ever eaten in your life. I can’t even begin to tell you the pleasure of it,” she practically moaned the words, ghosting a cold hand over Danny’s gently trembling forearm as she spoke.

“Look at me,” she commanded.

Danny’s eyes fluttered open, greeted by the sight of parted scarlet lips, two slender fangs now very prominent. Carmilla stared her down as if she were prey, despite the fact that she had to look  _up_  to do so. Slowly, deliberately, she moved forward, giving the werewolf all the time in the world to pull away. Yet she stood still until the vampire’s lips were mere inches from her own, her body flooding again with heat and the uncontainable urge to dominate her challenger.

She crushed their lips together with a vengeance, earning a startled gasp from Carmilla, who suddenly found herself back up against the tree trunk, held in place by a solid wall of muscle that pressed against her with delicious friction. The werewolf’s strong hands found her wrists in an instant, ripping them roughly over her head, never ceasing the relentless assault against the vampire’s rapidly-warming mouth. She didn’t pause at all when sharp fangs broke the skin of her bottom lip, a slender tongue darting out to taste the warm liquid that rushed to the surface. She felt Carmilla melt against her, surrendering as blood trickled into her mouth, moaning against Danny’s lips with what little air she could manage to take in under the furious kiss.

It ended as quickly as it began when the werewolf jerked away suddenly in a desperate need for distance, blood trickling down the side of her mouth as her chest heaved. “How dare you,” she managed to snarl between breaths, eyes squeezing shut to try and combat the feeling of her stomach bottoming out as if she had been dropped from a great height.

“That one was all you,  _pup_ ,” the vampire said with a smirk, an air of amusement filling her tone as she watched the stream of emotions pass uncensored across the werewolf’s face. “Well, I’ve said all I need to say…and more. You’d do well to remember that I am not your enemy. War is an inevitability, and I would  _much_ prefer to have you on my side.”

A moment passed, but Danny stood perfectly still until another breeze sweapt over her overheated body, mercifully banishing the vampire’s scent from her immediate vicinity. Only then did she dare open her eyes to the nothingness, body shaking with the effort of keeping herself upright.

When she was certain Carmilla was no longer around, she allowed herself to fall to her knees, drawing in a painful, shuddering breath as a single tear fell to join the blood still dripping from her lip.


End file.
